Single-Sex Schools: A Good New Change in our Nation

Schools everywhere seem to fall apart from drugs, sex, alcohol, gangs and much more. Each day kids get put down for what they believe in, or what they want in their life. Common teenagers have to deal with peer pressure, social credits, and learning disabilities. Is there something that we need to change? Yes! Schools need to be segregated by their sex. Single-Sex Schools have more advantages with these problems than any other Co-Educational School around the nation. Having Single-Sex Schools will enhance our nation’s future generations.

Many schools have changed their school system to be Same-Sex for the benefit for their school. Examples like: Woodward Avenue Elementary from Deland, Florida, Foley Intermediate from Foley Alabama and Jefferson Middle School from Springfield, Illinois and many more are included. They all have a step towards new education and have proved too many officials that Single-Sex Schools make a difference according to National Association for Single-Sex Public Education.

Everywhere people do many studies of schools across the country; they have looked into this subject for years! Stetson University in Florida did a three year project comparing Single-Sex Schools and Co-Educational Schools. They assigned either Single-Sex or Co-Educational rearrangement to each fourth grader at Woodward Avenue Elementary and studied them. The students then did the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test), the results were astonishing

Boys in the Co-educational Class had 37% proficient in the class. Boys in Single-Sex Classes had 75% proficient in the class. Girls in Co-Educational Classes had 59% proficient in the class. Girls in Single-Sex Classes had 89% proficient in the class. Both girls and boys had an outstanding amount of growth in Single-Sex classes.

Girls and Boys are both made differently and have their own learning pace and learning issues. Dr. Leonard Sax has a MD. PhD, and wrote a book called “Why Gender Matters”, about how girls have different feelings and learning expectations. For example: boys (from Dr. Sax’s book) have less hearing comprehension than girls do. So when you speak to young boys you need to speak with a louder tone. And with girls, they have a more developed ear so if you spoke to them with a louder tone you could hurt their feelings because they think you’re mad at them. That is why we need Single-Sex Schools! We need the men to teach the boys and the women to teach the girls. Both genders know how to handle children of the same sex.

Some might say, “In all boy schools, boys learn to be more sexist!!”, maybe, but girls and boys get to overcome stereotypes like “Science is only for boys”, and “Art is only for girls”. Both schools have the opportunity to be educated on the different variety of careers. To make another point, some boys and girls feel inferior to each others. Maybe a girl feel inferior in gym, or a boy feels inferior to girls when they get all the intension in class. In a Single-Sex environment they don’t have to be inferior to the opposite sex, but feel the same with their own sex.

A college freshman study in 2005, was conducted for the Goodman Research Group of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The study questioned 1,000 Single-Sex high school graduates in their freshman year of college. In the survey, the student needed to reflect on their school experience, and sum up their readiness on becoming a college student. The results were: “95% of recent girl’s school graduates said they were either very or extremely satisfied with their schools’ strong academic curriculum. 93% said they were very or extremely satisfied with how their schools prepared them for college… 99% felt more or equally prepared to interact with faculty compared with their peers who attended co-ed schools.” Quoted from an article by Linda J. Sax. She has a PhD in Higher Education and is Associate Director for the Higher Education Research Institute.

Not only do we want students to feel like they have learned in Single-Sex Schools but to feel like they belong in their environment. When a group of girls are together they share ideas and work together. A girl feels like they get called on more in class when they are in a Single-Sex school. Quoted by Dr. Rosemary, “Drawing from the research, one of the key arguments supporting single–sex programs is that they create an institutional and classroom climate in which female students can express themselves freely and frequently, and develop higher order thinking skills.”

At Evanston Middle School, they segregated sex in P.E. It helped the girls not humiliate themselves in front of someone they liked and eliminated how they felt inferior to the boy’s physical abilities that some girls couldn’t accomplish. We knew they did this because boys have a different body build than girls, which is good. But what if the school board segregated sex in science? Would the teachers have to change their teaching methods to teach boys or girls? I would like to change that with our school to prove why segregating sex isn’t so bad.

The information provided was basically the minimum amount of what I found out about Single-Sex Schooling being so important. We need to have Single-Sex education to fix the poor scores of kid’s average grades and put them up sky high! Single-Sex schools can help improve our nation’s generations to come.

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sure i get this but what about girls who are more like tomboys? I always had guy friends growing up, and school is just where u make ur friends. & if u want ur kid to go to a same-sex school, there are schools that are already like that, just more in the city areas. & with boys, they may not be very good at socializing with girls if they go through this system.

.replied...Aug. 31, 2012 at 5:01 pm

I agree! Most of my friends are guys... they help me escape all the girl-drama!

I don't agree with this at all. When adults, we can't get away from the opposite sex so how is only dealing with those of the same gender going to help us? Also, I have found when in an only girl environment, they gossip just as much as there is still bullying. Even though I don't agree with it, I think that it is still really well written and you argue your point very well.

although I'd hate to go to an all girls school, I think this was very well written, true and proved a valid point. I think that instead of completely segregating schools, they should just segregate the classes. some girls do not like to feel inferior, or occasionally be seen as tough or butch in gym, and both guys and girls dont always want to be seen as smart or nerds, but school without boys would honestly be no fun ;)

from what i know of teens and civilization people both male and femal can be mean and hurtful im pretty sure bullies exsiste in single sex schools. Also if boys and girls are forced to be seperate when there young when there eventually brought together they will be uncomfertable and disturbed.

THANK YOU! This comes form the kid who had to go to an all-girls private school since sixth grade. I'm not saying I don't appreciate the quality of education: trust me I'm not saying that all! However, practically all of my friends are girls I know from school. I have one guy friend (who incidentially attends the single-gender boys school across the street) but we don't talk much. It will be awkward when I reach college and find myself in a new social setting.

"Every day kids get put down for what they believe in." This is true at my co-educational school. But the people putting me down are boys and girls. Separating boys and girls will not make a difference to the level of bullying and the lack of respect shown toward other students and teachers.

"every day kids get put down for what they believe in, or what they want in their life..."
does that magically disappear in single- sex schools? How exactly are peer pressure, social credits and learning disabilities going to go away in single- sex schools?

I agree. I know someone who went to a school like this and the girls there are much worse: they gossip more, bully each other more, and have more cliques. All those problems will disappear if parents put in the right amount of input when the kid is in elementary school, I think.